^^ •'^ ^^o' ^V 




.^ 










^^s- 






O^ * e , 



^:nv 



; ^o v^ 













o_ '- 




VI VJ-* «*»- 



^oK 












"^oV • 












V 






•*p^^. 










•^^ <?* 










4 O 

^1 ^^ 




'oK 




'^0^ 




%. 



•o ^^. <S 






A 



















4 o 




0-7% 










<r. 





*^ " o „ o ^ -^ 



^ 

















aP -i.>L:- ^ v^ 




o « o ^ *^ 








.0 









A 










/ 




ALL ABOUT 



Ferrets and Rats 



BY 



ADOLPH ISAACSEN, 



"SURE POP." 



Price Twenty-five Cents. 



ALL ABOOT FERRETS AND RATS 



Fl, 



A COMPLETE HISTORY OF 



iffi, MIS, f MI mEilillOl 



— FROM — 



PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND STUDY. 



A PfjACTICAL HAND-BOOK ON THE FERREI 



/^ 



By "SURJ© POF*. " 

yr'' 

(Adolph Isaacsen.) 



BE30oiNrr> E3r>iTi03Nr- 



Price, Twenty-five Cents. 



NEW YORK: 

Adolph Isaacsen, Publisher, 
No. 92F ULTON Street. 






Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1890, 

By ADOLPH ISAACSEN, 
1 the Office of th« Lilbrarian of Congress, at "Washingien. 



003>TTE!3SrTS. 



Paob. 

Introductory 5 

The Ferret. 

I. What a Ferret Is 7 

II. Character and Appearance 9 

III. Eat Hunting 11 

IV. Food... .--. 14 

V. Ferret Houses 15 

VI. Diseases 16 

VII. Hardiness 17 

VIII. Breeding and Training 19 

IX. Strength and Bile 20 

X. Handling 21 

XI. With Cats and Dogs 21 

XII. Advantages as a Eat Exterminator 22 

XIII. Miscellaneous 23 

The Eat. 

I. The Eat Family and its Varieties 27 

II. Eat History 27 

III. The King's Own Eat-Catcher 29 

IV. Eat Society, Cannibalism, and Friendship) 30 

V. Multiplying Powers 33 

VI. Unabridged Bill of Fare 34 

VII. Ferocity 35 

VIII. Eats in Breweries, Slaughter Houses, Markets, 

Stables, and Barn-yards 36 

IX. Eats as Wine Drinkers 38 

X. Destructiveuess 39 

XI. EatsasFood 40 

XII. EatNests 43 

XIII. The Eat's Musical Talents and Eyesight 45 

XVI. Eats as Moralists 46 

XV. Eats in the Good Old Days, and the Modern Eat 

Superstitions 47 

XVI. Eeview of the Eat, and Conclusion 49 

Eat Extermination. 

I. Traps 51 

II. Poisons 54 

III. Dogs, Cats, and Ferrets 56 

IV. Human Eat Catchers 56 

The Okigin of the Ferret, with hints to Darwin 57 



INTRODUCTORY 



m the following pages we have given a complete 
review of the ever-important rat exterminating sub- 
ject, from a practical man's point of view. The essay 
on the Ferret has been exhaustively treated, is a 
special featmre of the work, and will be found of great 
value to the rat-ridden part of tke community, as well 
as to the fancier and naturalist. '* The Rat " has been 
handled from a universal point of view, and the book 
has been prepared from the writer's practical notes 
during his thirty years' study of Eats and Rat Exter- 
mination, 



THE FERRET. 




I. WHAT A FEEEET IS. 



Our dictionaries say that " ferret " as a verb active 
means to search out carefully. This is certainly an 
important function of the animal, but, as it belongs to 
the Musteline or flesh-eating weasel family, it has ako 
inherited these animals' boldness and savageness, though 
tempered and exercised in a very useful direction, i. e., 
of killing oS the most bothersome and numerous of 
our vermin for us. It is rather a well-known family, 



8 

tlie one to which the ferret belongs, including such 
animals as the sable, which furnishes the highly-prized 
fur, the skunk, with its not as greatly valued perfume, 
the ermine, the color of which is likened to the driven 
snow and whose dress forms the badge of royalty, the 
weasel, from which artists obtain their finest brushes, 
the marten, the badger, and the otter. The shape of 
these animals, the characteristics being strongly marked 
in the ferret, is long, slender, and serpentine (snake- 
like and winding), their teeth are very sharp, the muzzle 
and legs sliort. Their average food is rats, rabbits, 
and birds. Members of this class are found in all cli- 
mates and parts of the earth. 

It is necessary to state, primarily, that there is no 
such thing as a wild ferret ; it is domesticated in the same 
degree as a cat or a dog. The wild animal from which 
the ferret is bred is the weasel, just as the dog is origi- 
nally of wolf extraction, and the cat of the same class as 
the tiger or lion. The ferret is also interbred with the 
different species of the musteline tribe, such as the 
mink, marten, polecat, and fitch. These are neverthe- 
less all weasels in the same way that terriers, black and 
tans, ]S"ewfoundlands, and poodles all belong to the 
family of dogs. Tlie ferret's origin has been traced 
by some to Spain, by others again to the northwestern 
part of Africa, and by still different writers as far away 
from us as Egypt, but it was first used authentically for 
ratting and rabbiting in Great Britain, v/here it is most 
highly prized, its merits understood, and where almost 
every one is as familiar with it as he is with the nature 
of his house cat. The public here in America is yet 
but indifferently acquainted with the ferret. At an 
exhibition of ferrets made by the writer at Madison 



9 

Square Garden tkere was about one out of every fifteen 
persons that knew fhe name of the animal at all, and 
the ferrets were alternately designated as skunks, weas- 
els, guinea-pigs, raccoons, monkeys, wood chucks, kit- 
tens, puppies, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, rats (an 
animal for which they are commonly mistaken), hares, 
martens, otters, small kangaroos, muskrats, beavers, 
seals, and, ridiculous as it may seem, small bears. The 
American race of ferrets has been bred to a high de- 
gree of intelligence, as the proper medium of wildness 
in the hunt and docility to its keeper has been obtained 
principally through the efforts of the present writer. 
This, however, has only been brought about after a 
great deal of close study and experiment in cross breed- 
ing, until now the American animal is greatly prefer- 
able to its more sluggish and vicious English brother. 

II. — CHAEACTER AND APPEARANCE. 

Every individual ferret has a character and distinct 
look of its own, although there are some ugly, scarred, 
and bony specimens with game legs and glass eyes, 
still the ferret, when in good condition, is a pretty 
little animal, with soft fur and kittenish ways, and can 
be handled and fondled after you have become mutually 
acquainted, the same as a cat. It can never be made 
as trustworthy as a dog, because it does not possess as 
much intelligence. The general colors are white, yel- 
low, and a mixture of black, brown, gray, and tan, 
varied with gray and white patches over and under 
the neck and body. The tint runs according te the 
predoininancs of either 'ininJc, 7)%arten, fitch, or polecat 
Mood. The ferret is essentially a iisefid animal, and 



10 

is not valued for its good looks, but the purely colored, 
pink-eyed, wMte ferret, with its plu mp form and beau- 
tiful, glossy coat of a creamy shade, does certainly not 
present an ungainly appearance. The dark ones are a 
sprightly company, too, with their friendly, sparkling 
black eyes and social nature. There is no standard 
size — there are large and small breeds, the age having 
nothing to do with its inches. Some ferrets never get 
to be bigger than a size beyond a dock rat, while I 
have had others as large as a full grown cat. There are 
ferrets more valuable as hunters than others on account 
of their wiry forms, their age, experience, and intelli- 
gence. I have small, homely ferrets, whicli persons 
not understanding ferret peculiarities would pick out 
as the most miserable and stupid of a lot, but which in 
reality are choice hunting stock. There is no prefer- 
ence for small or large ferrets, as they are both good 
for different purposes. Ferrets are cleanly animals 
both in appearance and in their habits. Their jump- 
ing and climbing powers a]-e limited. There is a 
curious thing about the ferret that reminds us of its 
kinsmanship with the gentle-tempered skunk, for 
lohen it is teased or aggravated (showing this also by 
bristling up the hair of its tail) it emits a pungent 
odor from a gland it has underneath the tail. This 
only happens in extreme cases, otherwise it is peaceful 
enough except toward its natural prey. Different lots 
of ferrets, strangers to each other, will not agree, and 
should not he put together, as there is a risTc of a 
deadly hattle. It is a pleasant enough thing to watch 
a number of healthy ferrets at their antics. On the 
writer's breeding grounds, where the pens are always 
kept neatly painted and the sawdust carefully leveled 



11 

on the floor, making it look like a lawn in yellow, they 
generally huddle up in a snug heap, presenting a con- 
fused jumble of ieads, tails, blinking eyes, and indis- 
tinguishable masses of fur. This is during the day- 
time, after they have been fed. Toward dusk, or 
when they are hungry again, they disentangle them- 
selves from the bunch, one by one, and after they have 
properly yawned and stretched themselves they are 
very lively. They frisk and gambol about like lambs 
in a pasture, without the odd, long-legged appearance 
of the lamb, but they make up for this by humping 
up their backs like smaU dromedaries. They get to 
tumbling over one another in a comic, clown-like way, 
they run, galop, trot, and hop, and sit erect on their 
haunches. This latter action they perform in expec- 
tation of a mouse, a special delicacy with them, though 
but a mouthful, from the keepers leaning over the 
pens above. Upon the whole they seem to be enjoy- 
ing life immensely, presenting quite a study of animal 
contentment and happiness. 

in. KAT HUNTING. 

When the word rat is mentioned in connection 
with the ferret, our pacific scene is changed to 
one of war and bloodshed. The savage instincts 
of the animal are then aroused, and the rat itself 
knows, when it has caught the ferret's scent, that 
its time has come. There are no two animals more 
deadly enemies than these, the ferret being con- 
structed in such a way that it is best adapted to hunt 
the rat in the rat's own haunts. Wherever a rat can 
go a ferret can go, because the latter's body is as 



V2 

flexible as rubber, and it cun squeeze itself up, draw 
itself out, and flatten its limbs into a likeness of a New 
England buckwheat cake, as if there wasn't a bone in 
its body. The weasels, and nearly all wild animals of 
this division, after killing the prey suck the blood, eat 
the brain, leave the rest of the body untouched, and 
then proceed to annihilate the next victim, repeating 
the operation. Here is where the diflerence between 
the ferret and the other animals of its tribe comes in, 
for it does not content itself with brain food and such 
ethereal substances, but devours the whole carcass 
with a fine relish, not even leaving the tail or the 
skin. It bolts the bones and everything else thereto 
appertaining. It is rather an appalling experience for 
the first time to hear the hungry ferret's teeth go 
crunch, crunch, as they meet in the neck of some fat 
rodent. This sound bears a resemblance to a cowboy 
chewing radishes. A very hungry ferret would com- 
mence to devour the rat before it had thoroughly 
made its exit into the sweet subsequently. In using 
ferrets to clear a house of rats, they should be al- 
lowed to nose through the building during the night 
with the same freedom accorded a domestic animal. 
During the day they are kept in the pen. The reason 
a ferret should be hunted with in the night is that it 
sees better then, and that it is instinctively better 
fitted for hunting. The rats also become more vent- 
uresome at this time. When the ferrets are to be 
liunted with, feed them slightly, as feeding blunts 
their hunting capabilities and makes them worthless. 
After a good feed a ferret will sleep harder tlian any 
other domestic animal. Sometimes you will find a ferret 
so hard asleep that you can take him up, shake him, 



13 

and tlien put him down again without waking him. 
If jou are inexperienced in the ways of the ferret, jou 
will imagine you have a corpse on your hands. But 
the corpse will in a short time open its eyes, shake 
itself, wag its tail, and then trot around with the 
others. When a ferret sleeps he will let his com- 
panions tramp all over his head and body without 
allowing himself to be disturbed in the least. When 
they have been fed too well they will sleep and be of 
no further use. If these over-fed f ei-rets are in a pen 
and you put rats in for them to kill, they will not 
wake up even if the rats crawl all over them, although 
the rodents are scared into fits and are trying to get 
away with all their might and main. A hungry ferret 
around a house w^ill go scenting around as hunting 
dogs do, to discover any trace or hiding-place of his 
natural prey. This in itself is enough to drive all the 
rats to Jericho and make them stay there as long as 
the ferrets are kept around, for the rodents have an 
acute bodily fear of these prowding detectives. A 
ferret's being bitten by a rat happens only in extreme 
cases, but sometimes in cellars and other places that 
are swarming with rats, ferrets that have first been 
put in have to contend with great odds, and come out 
with some bruises. Therefore if even a good, old 
hunting ferret should he hitten hy a rat, he should not 
l)e used until the wound is perfectly healed again, 
even if it should take two or three weeks. The ferret 
is very peculiar in this respect, and if this rule is 
not observed he may be spoiled as a hunter forever 
afterwards. The ferrets hunt downward, and if put 
on the upper or top fioors in the evening they will 
turn up in the morning down in the cellar driving the 



14 

rats before them. They should be kept in a dry place, 
and they rapidly get to know their pens, returning to 
them and waiting to be put in when through hunting. 
With a moderate amount of attention they will thrive 
and prosper in their work of extermination. 

IV. FOOD. 

Ferrets should always be anxious for their meals. 
Eats are good ferret food; but never feed dead rats, as 
you run the risk of the rats having been previously 
poisoned, this also transmitting itself to the ferrets. 
If there are plenty of rats in the place the ferrets will 
be able to do their own choice marketing ; otherwise, 
when not hunting, feed them either crackers and 
milk or bread and milk, with a pan of water always 
at hand in warm weather. Raw meat can be given 
them two or three times a week, but never feed liver 
or salt meat. When milk is not handy use water 
instead. For a pair of ferrets use a shallow pan for 
their food, the pan to be as large as an ordinary saucer. 
Once a day is enough to feed them. When you wish 
to hunt your ferrets at night feed them in the morning, 
and they will be in the proper hunting condition when 
night comes. Particular relishes are chicken heads, duck 
heads, rabbit heads, and sparrows. Dilute the milk 
occasionally, and change off with the bread or crackers 
soaked in water instead of milk. Besides this you can 
feed your ferrets the same as you do your cat, with 
the exception above mentioned. Ferrets enjoy their 
meals heartily — they grunt and smack their lips with 
much satisfaction when fed ; particularly so when 
feasting off a rat, as there is nothing they enjoy more 
than a good, big, healthy one — turning the rodent 



15 

inside out and ploughing out the interior with great 
exactness. 

V. — FERRET HOUSES. 

Ferrets must have plenty of good air, as they can- 
not stand being boxed up closely for a great length of 
time without getting diseased. I have, since the first 
edition of this book was printed, invented a model 
ferret-cage, in which I keep my stock in perfect 
health and in prime condition. I now make a speci- 
alty of manufacturing this contrivance, and have 
dubbed it " The Sure Pop Ferret Cage." It is of a 
solid build, but of a convenient size for expressage to 
any point. It is divided into two sections : (A) for 
sleeping and (B) for exercise and feeding ; connected 
by an aperture just big enough for a ferret to get 
through. A (sleeping-room) is one-fourth the size of 
B and is kept dark, except that it has two small wire 
windows at each side which furnish perfect ventila- 
tion. B (for exercise and feeding) is constructed of 
wire on the top and the sides around a solid frame ; 
the same flooring serving the two apartments. There 
is a wide door on the end of the larger section and 
also one on the roof of the smaller, so that the ferrets 
can be conveniently taken out or handled and the cage 
cleaned at any time. In winter it is best to keep the 
smaller division full of liay; it keeps the ferrets warm 
and clean. In the larger part you can use sawdust or 
earth : and another bior advantasre I wish to call 
attention to is the peculiar manner in which the 
connecting aperture is placed, so that the ferrets can- 
not carry out the hay, but can conveniently get from 
one apartment to the other. The price at which I am 



16 

now disposing of these cages ($5.00) is merely nomincnij 
but I prefer to have my stock lioiised in a comfortable 
and correct manner, as the ferrets will then do better 
work and get attached to their new master a great 
deal quicker than if their quarters were neglected. 
The above cage is, as I have said, of a very convenient 
size, and can be stored in the cellar of a house — if the 
cellar is dry — or can be placed in a barn or stable, or, 
if needs be, can be put into service as an independent 
out-of-door house. For the latter use the larger 
apartment should be boarded up, so that the ferrets 
are not completely exposed to the rough weather ; it 
should also be kept three or four inches above the 
ground. If sa,wdust is used, it should be cleaned out 
at least every other day and replaced with a fresh 
supply. The hay need not be changed for one week. 

VI. DISEASES. 

On the topic of ferret diseases, all the advice I can 
give is of a preventive, rather than of a curative, 
nature. My experience has been that, when a ferret 
is sick, it is the wisest policy to kill it immediately, as 
in all ray practice I have never cured a sick ferret yet. 
Of course there are numerous remedies advocated 
by persons who claim to " know it all " ; but experi- 
ment with these is simply a waste of time and ma- 
terial. The common diseases of ferrets are foot-rot, 
distemper, diphtheria, and influenza. Foot-rot is 
caused by dirt and neglect, and is the most common, 
dangerous, and devastating. It m.akes the feet swell 
out to twice their natural size, and become spongy ; the 
nose and snout get dirty ; the eyes ccmmeHce to run, 



17 

become perceptibly weaker, and tlien close. The 
tail also changes to a sandy and gravelly texture. 
Distemper is only a case of foot-rot aggravated. In 
influenza the nose runs violently, and there is the 
same affection of the eyes, accompanied by incessant 
sneezing. Diphtheria is a throat trouble, indicated 
by swelling of the neck, much heavy coughing, and 
nearly tlie same other accompaniments as the above 
diseases. To prevent disease, cleanliness and modera- 
tion are the simple antidotes : this is not such a hard 
thing to accomplish, as the ferret is a strong animal 
for its size, and very cleanly itself. Ferrets are some- 
times run down by overwork in hunting, and get 
to be dull and sluggish ; but they will soon regain 
their vigor, by letting them rest for awhile, and 
giving them plenty of food. Pure air, fresh, raw, 
bloody meat, and good milk, will soon bring the 
ferrets back to their natural state inside of a week. 

Ferrets are sometimes troubled with fleas of a lar2:e 
size, that use the animals up greafly if they are not 
checked immediately. A little Sure Pop Insect 
Powder rubbed in dry with the hand will settle the 
insects effectively in a very short time. 

VII. HAKDINESS. 

There are numerous remarkable examples of ferret 
toughness on record, l^ot long since, the following 
came under my notice : A couple of ferrets were used 
in a warehouse, and one of them, a handsome, dark- 
coated, mink-bred animal, accidently fell through a 
hatchway from the fourth story. He was brought 
to rue in a horrible condition, the hinder part of the 



18 

body being entirely s.naslied out of shape, and com- 
pletely paralyzed. The poor brute was forced to 
drag along its useless trunk with the help of its fore- 
feet only. I thought myself the animal was assuredly 
done for; but in a fortnight it had quite recovered 
the use of its limbs, which also assumed their natural 
form and function. It was again enabled to hop 
about as well as the rest ; in fact, no trace of its 
former complete demolition remained. Another note- 
worthy example was this : A friend of mine, M 

was out rabbit-hunting with a companion carrying his 
ferret, which had been muzzled, in his pocket, a com- 
mon way of transporting it. . After he had bagged 
half a dozen rabbits in one place, he secured his ferret 
again, and went on walking some distance througli 
a snowed-over part of the woods, chatting with his 
friend. He suddenly felt in his pocket, and found 
his ferret had got away. They retraced their steps, 
carefully searching for two or three hours high and 

low, but without success. M went home, satisfied 

his ferret was lost. Eight days afterwards, coming 
over the same ground, he saw a shadowy, tliin spot 
of dirty fur under a ridge, which, after he had more 
closely examined, turned out to be the long-lost ani- 
mal. It was completely exhausted and reduced to 
a skeleton, but still showed some signs of life. It 
had probably crawled in under some sm^all opening 
in a ridge at the time of its being drop]3ed, and so 

had escaped M 's attention. As he found his ferret 

w4th the muzzle still on, it could not have procured 
either food or drink. The poor brute must have 
suffered agonies, showing what horrible cruelty the 
practice of muzzling is. M • took his ferret 



19 



home, fed it well, and inside of a month it was entirely 
restored, and just as good a ferret, in every respect, 
as ever. If ferrets are together, and are kept strictly 
without food for a length of time, they will devour 
one another quite readily, in lieu of better fodder. 



Vni. BREEDING AND TEAINING. 

Ferrets are rather difficult animals to raise in num- 
bers — it requires a large amount of patience, great 
care, and scrupulous neatness, although when full 
grown they are very hardy. The writer's ferret 
breeding grounds consist of special farms, on which 
are erected numbers of small barn-like structures, 
each furnished inside with a dozen pens, and an aisle 
running through the middle. Every pen is as large 
as a horse's stall, the boarding and other accessories are 
kept clean by vigorous scrubbing, the sawdust on the 
floor is changed once a day, and the pens and the 
ferrets are otherwise attended by experienced ferret 
men. Here the ferrets are taught to do their work 
of killing and hunting by practical experiment on live 
rats. Although it is in the nature of ferrets to hunt 
and kill rats, the same as it is for a bird to fly, yet we 
find a little extra course of training is necessary in 
both cases. 

It will not do to hunt with ferrets until they are at 
least seven months old. Ferrets breed but once a 
year, and have from four to nine at a litter on the 
average — it is very rarely they have two litters a 
year. They are trained to the whistle by feeding 
them every time this instrument is used, so that after 



20 

awliile they promptly respond. The ferret is ruled 
through his stomach. The time of the ferret's getting 
in heat is in March, nine weeks after which they 
breed. The male invariably takes hold of the female 
as if he w^ere going to strangle her. The young are 
born without hair, and must, therefore, be kept warm. 
They liave their eyes open in thirty days, and should be 
fed on as much milk as they want. * The male 
should be removed from the female before the litter- 
ing, the symptom.s of v/nich are exactly like a cat or a 
dog, or else he will destroy the entire brood. Care 
should be taken to have the female well supplied with 
food during tlie period of copulation, or else she may 
casually munch up the young herself, and the writer 
has lost many a pretty litter by this little habit of the 
unnatural m.other. As in crops, tliere are years for 
raising ferrets which arc more fortunate than others, 
some seasons having a fatal effect on the young ones. 



IX. STRENGTH AND BITE. 

The great strength of the ferret is in the teetli, neck, 
and forefeet. One ferret can hold up eight times its 
own weight with its teeth. Tv/enty or thirty ferrets 
when hungry will fasten their teeth in a piece of meat 
and can be picked up in this way and swung around 
without ever causing them to think of letting go. 
They will hang to an object which they have been 
provoked against with a persistence which would 
make a Bill Sykes bull-dog blush with shame. The 
only way to loosen their hold is to grasp them firmly 

* They ouglit not to be Landled before they are one month old. 



21 

around the neck with the pressure on the skull, and 
to shove them towards the object, not from it, for if 
you try the latter way you can pull for a day and a 
night without any perceptible result on the ferret. 

The bite of a ferret is not dangerous ; they will 
only bite a human being out of mistake, because they 
don't see well in the daytime. They imagine you are 
kindly holding down some bit of meat for them to 
chew at, and they don't bite because they are at all 
viciously inclined towards you. Of course you don't 
want to tease, annoy, or step on them, or you may find 
them loaded. If a ferret bites you, he will let go im- 
mediately, and you and the ferret both will quickly 
realize the mistake. 

X. — HANDLmG. 

Ferrets should at first be handled by the back of the 
neck. The tail is the natural handle for lifting up a 
ferret, in the same degree that the ears are of a rabbit. 
The ferret should only be lifted by the tail and 
should be handled by the back of the neck. After a 
wild ferret has been handled this way for some time 
he will get to be very tame and you can handle him in 
any way. He will get so that he will hop up in his 
pen at your approach and want you to play with and 
caress him, although it is never advisable to give him 
your perfect confidence, such as putting him to your 
face, etc. 

XI. WITH CATS AND DOGS. 

Ferrets are easily kept with cats and dogs, and after 
a little training and discipline they will hunt together, 
the ferret being generally used to drive out the rats 



22 

from the holes in a barn, etc., and the dog doing the 
hilling. When they are first introduced to each other 
there will be a little sparring, and the dog's master 
must strictly forhid his day to touch the ferret or else 
the dog may Mil it at the first wrestle^ but after the 
novelty of each other's appearance has worn off they 
will lie down together in one corner and be the best of 
friends, as I have witnessed scores of times. The 
writer has cats and ferrets on his farm that regularly 
feed and play together. Ferrets should not be kept 
in a place with sick dogs or cats, as the disease will 
surely be transmitted to them. 

XII. THE ferret's ADVANTAGES AS A RAT EX- 
TERMINATOR. 

Ferrets have been brought forward, chiefly by the 
labors of the present writer, to be regarded within the 
last few years as domestic animals. There is cer- 
tainly, yet, a great degree of prejudice against the 
ferret — a natural result of ignorance of its ways; 
but we firmly believe that the more it comes in con- 
tact with man, and is bred in captivity, the more 
readiJy it will be put by him in the division of com- 
mon domestic animals, and he will, furthermore, find 
it his best remedy in rat extermination, making the 
latter worthies as scarce as the ordinary rat has made 
its black-complexioned cousin. 

For this latter purpose the ferret's most apparent 
advantages are as follows : 

First. There is nothing a rat is more afraid of, by 
nature, than a ferret, so that the rats are driven off by 
acute bodily fear. 



23 

Second, The body of the ferret, and its small head 
also, is remarkably flexible, thus enabling it to get 
into and drive out the vermin from their holes and 
breeding-places. 

Third. When through hunting they do not stray 
off, but return to their pens, and wait there till they 
are put in. 

Fourth, They devour the entire carcass of the rat, 
after killing it, and do not leave the slightest trace of 
it around. 

Fifth, The ferrets can be trained to obey the 
whistle somewhat like a dog, and, by attaching a bell 
to their necks, they can always be traced to whatever 
part of the building they may stray. 

Sixth. After they get acquainted, and have been 
handled for some time, they become affectionate pets, 
and can be fondled and caressed freely. 

Seventh. They are very cleanly, peaceful, and non- 
destructive in other ways. 

XIII. — MISCELLANEOUS. 

Ferrets are extensively used to drive out rabbits 
from their holes, although the laws are very stringent 
against thi;? sport. For this purpose they are gener- 
ally muzzled, which is a cruel and unnecessary prac- 
tice. All that is required of the ferret is to drive 
and scare out — the rabbit being then caught or shot. 
A bell around the ferret's neck will scare off the rab- 
bit immediately, because the ferret is slow, and the 
rabbit will hear him coming from a distance. A 



24 

properly trained and handled ferret needs no harness 
of any kind. J^ever muzzle a ferret for rats, as he 
may be savagely attacked where the rats are thick, 
and then be unable to defend himself. Ferrets are 
innzzled by tying their jaws, so that they can not bite, 
with waxed cords, etc. There are also muzzles like 
those made for dogs, only fitted to the ferret's size. 

A writer in a certain J^ ew York paper has put the fer- 
rets to a peculiar use, on account of their flexible bodies. 
The following is quoted from a supposititious interview 
with the present writer : " A gentleman purchased a 
ferret, and became greatly attached to it. To show 
me how well he had trained liim since the purchase, 
he called Pet (as he had dubbed him) to his side, and, 
dropping his pencil behind a large immovable desk, 
where it would be almost impossible to get it again, he 
merely said, " Get it ! " Iq an instant the ferret was 
off, and soon back again with the pencil in his mouth. 
The gentleman said that he had been of great service 
to him in that way, and he recommended them to all 
old ladies who are in the habit of losing thimbles and 
spectacles in out-of-the-way nooks and holes." We 
can not help remarking, that this certainly imputes a 
trifle too much intelligence to the animal. 

There seems to be a curious superstition regarding 
the ferret amongst the lower classes of people from Eng- 
land, Ireland, and Scotland, to the effect that the fer- 
ret possesses healing properties. 1 have numbers of 
people come to me with pans of milk, part of which 
they want the ferrets to lap up, reserving the other 
half for medicine. They firmly believe this an infalli- 
ble cure for whooping-cough in children. On some 
days so many people come for this purpose, with milk 



25 




26 

in all sorts of vessels, that tlie ferrets would certainly 
have burst their buttons, if they had any, in trj^ing to 
do justice to all of it. The people wait their turn 
patiently, and come any day I appoint to have the 
ferrets drink some of the milk. I have heard many 
miraculous accounts from them of Mrs. So and-so's 
baby who was down " that sick " with the whoop- 
ing-cough, and the "doctors givin' her up, and she 
comin' to directly by a drop o' the milk the blessed 
little craythurs had been lappin' at ; and it's the only 
rale rimedy yer can put in tire faith in." 

The following is an extract from a Kansas news- 
paper : " An old Englishman is now traveling through 
the country with two pair of ferrets, with which he 
is making money by killing prairie-dogs. He has his 
pets in a wire cage, and, going to a ranch where there 
are indications of prairie-dogs, he offers to clean out 
the dog-town for 1 cent per dog. The price ap- 
pears so very small, that the ranchman does not hes- 
itate to accept the offer. One ferret will clean out 
from twenty to fifty dogs before he tires out, or, 
rather, before he gets eo full of blood of his victims 
that he can't work well. When one is tired out, a 
fresh one is put into service ; and so on until the town 
is rid of dogs." 



THE RAT. 



i; THE KAT FAMILY AND ITS VAKIETIES. 

The cynical, and, as lie is generally acknowledged, 
villainous old rat, is a near kinsman of as innocent and 
]>eaceful a community as the squirrels, rabbits, and 
hares are, at least the natural histories unite in telhng 
us that they all belong to the Rodentia or gnawing 
animal family. The three great subdivisions of rat 
are the Black, Brown and Water varieties. With the 
latter we have nothing to do, as it is an innocent field 
animal that never goes near man or his works, and is 
not properly one of the " whiskered vermin race " or 
rat breed. The dock rats belong to the Brown brigade. 

II. KAT HISTORY. 

Regarding the rat's history and antecedents we are 
informed in some books on this subject, very positively, 
that the common or Brown rat was brought from Nor- 
way, while other naturalists insist with a pertinacity 
peculiar to the tribe that the animal originally comes 
from Persia and India. We feel justified in believing 
with the majority that this kind of vermin has its 
origin in Asia, that venerable continent of cholera, 
Heathen-Chinee, and Old Testament. But again, what- 
soever the different opinions may be, it is certainly 
found that this species of rodent is distributed over 
every country on the face of the earth in a very near 
equal way, because every ship that leaves port takes in 



28 

its cargo of rats just as regularly as it does its cargo of 
provisions and merchandise, and thus it can be readily 
seen how this delicate tender blossom is carefully 
though unwittingly transplanted. In this way the 
Brown rat^ which is now the strongly predominant 
rat party, was brought to J^ew York and America in 
1775 from England, Yv^hich would doubtless give great 
pleasure to that part of the population with an Anglo- 
maniac tendency and would probably reconcile them 
much more to this sect of vermin. In Europe the latter 
made their appearance in 1730, and then spread out to 
every inhabitable country. " For men may come and 
men may go, but I go on forever " would at the lirst 
glance seem to be the case v/ith the rat tribe as well 
as with the musical brooklet of Tennyson, yet the 
history of tiie rat nations is like unto the history of 
man — one clan waging a long and bitter war of con- 
quest and extermination against the otlier until hardly 
any trace of the conquered but once mighty and ambi- 
tious race remains. The Black or Indigenous rat had 
things all its own way in !North America as well as 
through the rest of the civilized earth, before the Brown 
species' sweeping invasion, the former having been en- 
tirely subdued and are now very scarce. It was easy 
enough for the brown rats to do this, because they weic 
bigger, bolder, and more ferocious. Their multiplying 
powers, too, were sixteen times greater than the van- 
quished nation whose origin is shrouded in the darkest 
and most complete mystery. 

The writer has on several occasions observed a dark 
colored rat on vessels coming from Brazil and other 
States of South and Central America that was unlike 
any specimen of this animal he had remembered ever 



29 

seeing before. It was of a deep bluisli tint, had 
an abnormally long tail, very large ears, and sliarp^ 
fiery, bead-like eyes, that looked in the dark like small 
electric lamps. Its agility and desperate nervousness 
was something marvelous, and its bump of destructive- 
ncss was largely developed also. This is probably a 
stray representative from some struggling colony of 
the dethroned black rat nation. Small numbers of them 
are occasiondlly brought to our own shores by these 
vessels. The rats generally escape from the ships, 
vv^hereupon, as soon as the vessel is about to sail away 
again, their places are promptly filled by their brown 
brethren. Then the desolate black rats stray to the 
sewers of the city, where they are speedily over- 
whelmed and dispatched by members of the other 
faction, their inveterate foes and conquerors. 



HI. THE king's own EAT CATCHES. 

Altbougb this black rat is inferior to the brown 
tribe in strength, size, and breeding powers, yet it 
must have been formidable also, for it was formerly 
thought necessary in England to institute the queer 
court position of rat catcher to the King. This was 
probably the case in other countries, too, but no rec- 
ords of it have been kept. According to an old histo- 
rian this English rat catcher was a Yerj dignified and 
mysterious individual, generally with gypsy blood in his 
veins, as it was thought necessary for him to know 
something of the Dark Science to properly perform 
his duties. He was attired in a rich manner, wearing 
a scarlet coat embroidered with yellow v/orsted on 
which were designed figures of rats and mice destroy- 



so 

ing wlieatsheaves. He was looked at with much awe 
by the populace, as he turned out with a stately tread 
and great pomp, carrying a heavy staff with the insig- 
nia of his exalted office, whenever he took part in the 
royal pageants. This he did regularly, and it is also 
stated that he had an attendant, who never took part 
in the processions but who did the main part of the 
work, always with as much mystery as possible, upon 
the munificent stipend of tuppence a month, while the 
gentleman in the red coat superintended the job and 
received the glory — differing radically in this respect 
from the rat catchers of the present day. 

IV. EAT SOCIETY, CANNIBALISM, AND FKIENDSHIP. 

Animals of nearly all kinds are fond of each other's 
society, and in their natural wild state are always found 
in herds. The city rats live in tribes or colonies of 
from twenty-five to sixty individuals, in the winter 
more and in the summer less. In the cold weather, 
when they are idle or at rest, they lie in one heap for 
the purpose of mutually heating each other. They 
change from the bottom to the top and alternate their 
positions very frequently, so as to give each one an 
opportunity to enjoy the warmer place at the bottom. 
The warmer the locality the less individuals there are 
in a heap. These rats live peacefully enough amongst 
themselves when they have enough to eat, but the 
minute they are apprised of a slightly vacant feeling 
in the region of the stomach they become the most 
savage of animals. 

The mother rat is very careful and fussy about her 
young until they get to a certain age. When they 



SI 

liave passed this period, however, and the mother 
should, on some bright day, feel a trifle hungry, she 
would as readily devour her offspring as the children 
would make a meal of her, thus returning the compli- 
ment neatly. Individual cases of this kind occur also 
amongst the canine family, where dog-bitches have 
dined royally on a majority of their newly born pups. 
" This tends to show that man is not the only intelligent 
animal who occasionally uses his fellow's carcass for 
fodder. Cannibalism, in the rat's case, takes place 
generally when they are unable to get any other diet, 
but then they will devour one another with gusto, 
skin, tail, bones, feathers, and all ; the stronger killing 
the weaker and sucking the blood first. Hot blood is 
one of their greatest delicacies. The rats are born 
blind and naked, and their bodies are at this time of 
their life in a wobbly and unformed state. In this 
condition they would probably not be looked on by 
outsiders as things of beauty or delicate morsels, yet 
they are eagerly sought after by the old male rat to 
furnish him with his Sunday dinner dessert. The 
male pigs, cats, ferrets, and rabbits also indulge in the 
same pastime. This is made still more of a highly 
prized food for the old man rat by its rarity, as the 
mother will fight to protect her young with the bold- 
ness and savageness of a lioness defending her cubs. 
She will even go to the pathetic extent of chewing up 
her young ones herself rather than let them fall into 
the hands of her oppressor. The rats have an arrange- 
ment amongst them similar to the old Greek health 
law of killing off all sickly infants, that is, they eat 
their dead and infirm. This accounts for the fact that 
rats are never found at large sick, diseased, or disabled. 



m 

Although, as a rule, it isn't considered the correct 
thing with ns to dine or breakfast from our departed 
fathers-in-law or uncles, yet in the present case, pecu- 
liar as it may seem, it is the only admirable trait about 
the rat. It forms a safeguard to man against their in- 
crease, yet we must add, in a hurry, that the check 
piit upon their growth by their cannibalism is lament- 
ably small when compared to their enormous multiply- 
ing powers, which surpass those of any other animal. 
The writer had a curious experience in regard to the 
rat's sociability and companionship. He had once 
confined in a cage a company of twelve big slaughter- 
house rats and happened to neglect feeding them one 
evening. The next morning he was rather astonished 
to find a well polished backbone, a stubby remnant of 
tail, and only eleven other rats, all huddled up together 
compactly, in the congregation. He then gave them 
some food to stop them from further feeding on each 
other, btit they rudely refused this, and he was again 
surprised to see ten of the number make a combined 
attack, that looked as if agreed upon, upon one unfor- 
tunate but especially large sized rat. The latter tried 
desperately enough to hold his own against such fear- 
ful odds, with much horrible squealing and screaming 
among them and a great deal of severe scratching, 
dashing, and tumbling against the tin-lined sides and the 
wire roofing of the cage. In a few seconds they were 
ranged all around in a circle feeding ravenously on the 
remains of the brave but ill-fated warrior. The writer 
has noticed, in numerous instances where numbers of 
rats were kept together in a cage, that they would on 
some occasions, just as the humor seemed to strike 
them, prefer their relatives and brethren as food to 



33 

anything else. It did not matter, either, what other 
form of diet or delicacy had been set before them. 



V. MULTIPLYING POWERS. 

Great quantities of rats are trapped and poisoned 
and hnnted down by all animals larger than them- 
selves ; they are driven out of their homes, and sys- 
tematically destroyed by paid vermin-destroyers ; still 
ail this seems to make but very slight impression on 
their numbers as they constantly pop up serenely from 
below just as if " Sure Pop " and rat-traps had only 
a mythic existence in fairy tales. They multiply 
prodigiously, the female breeding on the average 
about eight times a year, and having as many as four- 
teen at a litter, though in some instances this record 
has been badly beaten. A writer on this subject 
calculates that from a single pair of New York rats, 
living in moderately good circumstances, there will 
spring in three years' time a snug, happy little family 
of 660,000 rodents, including mother, father, children, 
grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc., and making 
due allowance for emergencies, accidents, and for a 
few hundred of them having been overpowered and 
used for food by the rest of this most worshipful 
company. lie allows an average of eight young at a 
litter, half male and half female, the young ones 
bavins: a litter at six months old. One cause of their 
being so prolific is that they flourish and breed as well 
on an abundance of swill, refuse, and garbage, as if they 
were carefully and tenderly fed three times a day. 



34 



VI. THE KAT S TJNABEIDGED BILL OF FAE^. 

Next to the ostrich, the rat possesses the most capa- 
cious and accommodating kind of stomach. He will 
swallow anything, digestible or otherwise, although he 
can appreciate good things with much intelligence, 
when he comes across them. His bill of fare ranges 
all the way up from tallow- can dies and shingles to 
roast-partridge and old boots. Rats are broadly om- 
nivorous, and their food varies widely with their 
situation. They will eat soap, from the harsh and 
strong smelling washerwoman's kind to the richly 
perfumed and tinted toilet variety. With a vast and 
admirable toleration, they will feed upon bacon, 
sponges, ham, roots, flour, pork, roast-fowl, from 
boarding-house chicken to the microscopic quail; 
they will consume confectionery, potatoes, tomatoes, 
turnips, other vegetables, fruit of every description, 
from huckleberries to watermelons, raw, boiled, broiled, 
or fried fish, suet, eggs, bread, mutton, cheese, and 
butter. Also raw, cooked, boiled, broiled, fried, 
smoked, or roast-beef, and they swallow with keen 
relish wines of all brands and vintages, beer, whisky, 
gin, and brandy, and evince a loving fondness for all 
grades of oil, from the dirtiest, coarsest whale's 
blubber to the finest olive. The rat is verily a most 
cosmopolitan glutton, and enjoys the favorite dishes 
of the various nations with much the same hearty ap- 
preciation throughout, hugely delighting himself with 
frog's hind-legs in France, pickled herrings in Hol- 
land, potatoes roasted on the hearth in Ireland, pum- 
pernickel and sourkrout in Germany, anise-seed, garlic, 
and olla podrida in Spain, birds' -nest, skarks' fins, and 



meat furnished by the rat's own brethren in China, 
caviare and candles with the Russians, roast-beef and 
ale in England, and pork-and-beans and peanuts witli 
the people of a certain division of ITorth America. 

Drawing the line at a particular point in the rats' 
endeavors to obtain " belly timber," as Sancho puts it, 
is an obsolete custom with them, for they devour pu- 
trid carrion, and human flesh, too, comes within this 
category, a further account of v/hich will be found in 
the course of the next chapter. 

VII. FEEOOITT. 

The rat is dangerously ferocious when aroused, and 
is capable of being wrought up to a pitch of white 
heat fury. If he should be caught, his tail cut, his 
hair burnt, or if he should be wounded in any other 
way, but not sufficiently to weaJ^en his system or 
momentary capacity, and he is then let loose, he will, 
through sheer madness and pure " cussedness," hunt 
up, fight, and overpower his brethren individually, 
or else put them to flight in a body, without much 
ado. In fact, when he is worked up to this state, 
he wouldn't hesitate for a moment to attack an entire 
army of rats, or of other far bigger and more terrible 
objects. In many cases lil^e this, rats have often 
obligingly rid premises of their own kind. If the 
tortured or maimed rat is in a weak condition after- 
wards, he will be promptly overpowered by the other 
members of the rat community upon general prin- 
ciples. 

We are often regaled in the newspapers with 
"brutally frank" accounts of people leaving their 



36 

babies alone at home, and, upon returning, finding 
them frightfully lacerated by rats, slowly and re- 
luctantly escaping from the scene. In like manner, 
they have become bold enough to attack solitary in- 
valids in houses, who had work enough to defend 
themselves from, and to drive off, these ferocious 
little beasts, driven on by hunger like the true wolves 
of the wilderness. 

Living or dead, man is bound to furnish food for 
the rat ; and in church-yards, where, ghoul-like, they 
choose the night as their time of appearing, they de- 
molish the skeletons, littering the ground with rem- 
nants of the white, shining bones. 



Vin. EATS m BEEWEEIES, SLAXTGHTER-HOTTSES, MARKETS, 

STABLES, AND BAKN-YAKDS. 

The writer, in the course of his many rat-hunting 
expeditions, has had occasion to observe the rats in 
the lower cellars of many large New York breweries, 
where beer was about all they could get to live on. 
The sage old rodents, I observed, that had become 
accustomed to this diet — and had noted scientifically 
its queer effects in large doses on the rat system — in- 
dulged in a moderate way, and became aged, good- 
natured, and fat, like some jovial, bald-headed old 
merchant of the human type. The young rats, how- 
ever, that had been recruited from the neighboring 
houses, would proceed immediately to paint a limited 
part of the town quite crimson with much hilarious- 
ness and quantities of beer, after which they could be 
killed or caught without much bother, lying around 



37* 

through the passage-ways in a beastly intoxicated 
state. Here they lay, squealing faintly, and without 
concern, on their backs. We may find in this, if we 
care to look for it, a really valuable temperance 
lesson ; for, when the rodents imbibed with modera- 
tion, they were of a strong and healthy race, and 
greatly looked up to in the gnawing community ; but, 
when they quaffed too heavily, they became poets, 
and cared not for the affairs of this small earth, 
whereupon they were ignobly killed with a club by 
some base son of man. In slaughter-houses, they 
become so unconscious after having gorged them- 
selves with a hearty dinner of hot blood and other 
warm offal, that hundreds of them could be picked 
up and massacred with but very faint resistance on 
the otherwise cautious rat's part. 

In old markets, rats yet do valuable service as san- 
itary inspectors, by demolishing the amount of refuse 
and garbage ; but in other channels they are the 
very demons of destruction. They are especially 
fond of cheese ; and in the cheese-dealers' stalls they 
go at their work of procuring this in a highly artistic 
way. They drill holes through the flooring beneath 
the largest cheeses, and then work their way up and 
eat into them, consuming pounds upon pounds in a 
single night. The men sometimes find a large cheese 
with the interior scooped entirely out, leaving the 
rind, in hollow mockery, simply an empty, worthless 
shell. In the butchers' shops, the rats are connois- 
seurs in the quality of meat, always seeking out the 
primest portions of the beef in preference to any 
others. 

Around barn-yards they destroy the ^rain, oats, 



38 

and every species of fowl, from the smallest to the 
largest specimen. In going at their work of destruc- 
tion, they spring upon the neck of the victims, and 
pierce and bite it through with their teeth. They 
then suck the blood first, or else eat into the flesh as 
they would into a cheese, often contenting them- 
selves with the blood and leaving the carcass. In 
stables the harness and the axle grease, even, suffice to 
make a square meal for them in default of better 
fodder; they also make the horses frantic by fiend- 
ishly gnawing at their hoofs. 



IX. EATS AS WINE DRINKERS. 

In a neat and cleverly written little book on Spain, 
it is observed that " in the w^ine cellars the bungs in 
the heads of the butts containing sweet wines had 
little square pieces of tin nailed over them. This was 
to protect them from the rats who otherwise get upon 
the edge of the butt, and lick the sweet wine which 
oozes through, then begin to nibble the bung, and 
go on, if they are let al6iie, till out rushes the wine in 
a stream." The effects of the rats' ingenuity seems to 
bear rather a kind intention toward his two-legged 
brother, described in the following : " This happened 
not long ago to a large tonel of the finest Pedro Jime- 
nez, which v/as stored with others in the ground-floor 
of a house, the owner of which was away in Seville, 
with the key, w^hich he would trust to no one, in his 
pocket. One morning out came the bung, long nibbled 
by rats, and about three hundred gallons of the wine 
ran out into the gutter. It was a queer sight, people 
rushing to dip it up with any vessel that came to hand^ 



39 

some of tliem presentlj using mops, and the small 
boys, who had found it was sweet, and lapped up as 
much as they could get at, lying around the street in 
various stages of intoxication," after the manner of our 
frisky friends, the joyous rats of the brewery cellars. 

X. DESTEUCTIVENESS. 

The rat's bite, and especially that of old rats, is very- 
poisonous, and its teeth are finely adapted for severe, 
quick, sharp, and deep cutting. It forms an urgent 
natural necessity for them, owing to the peculiar 
structure and growth of their teeth, to keep them in- 
cessantly working. The idea never comes to the rats 
of a possible breaking off of their tusks in attacking 
such flexible objects as bricks or lead, and the writer 
has seen cases in which the rats cheerfully went to 
work gnawing off corners of bricks and granite, in a 
persistent manner, so that they could make an opening 
large enough for their admission into a house. Noth- 
ing is exempt from their merciless teeth. They muti- 
late the woodwork on the valuable drawing-room 
chair just as readily as they would the dingiest, most 
plebeian sort of washtub, and they make sad havoc of 
upholstery of all kinds. They seem to have an espe- 
cially lasting grudge against the transmission of knowl- 
edge, for books are gnawed and mutilated by them in 
immense quantities. They gnaw paper, from legal 
documents of the highest value (and many an import- 
ant writing has been hopelessly destroyed by their 
agency), to the most worthless treatise on '* Four- 
Fingered Hike ; or. The Terror of Hoboken." Our 
clothing, shoes, hat-gear, etc., is turned out by the rats 



40 

in a pitifully dilapidated condition. Tliey also eat into 
lead pipes for the purpose of obtaining water, which it 
is hard for them to ' do without, although we have 
found that they can be without food for a much 
greater length of time. When the rats are pressed for 
drink on board ship, they lay low in the day-time, but 
in the evening they stealthily come out on the deck 
from the hold, in a long row, single file, in order to 
sip the moisture from the rigging. 

By examining the Fire Marshal's Report of New 
York City from 1868 to 1882, we learn that rats have 
been the cause of 70 fires during 12 years, making an 
average of -Q.ve fires a year. This is on account of the 
rats' strong propensity for nibbliog matches. In the 
same report is a warning against the loose and careless 
manner in whicli matches are left in pantries and 
closets infested by rats and mice with a fondness for 
this kind of diet. The great attraction for the rodents 
in the matches is the phosphorus, which these useful 
articles contain in abundance, and which the rats are 
able to scent out from a great distance. 



XI. — RATS AS FOOD. 

If you were lunching on something similar in taste 
to roast partridge, and some one told you, after you 
had finished, that it was only domestic house rat, your 
interior machinery would probably be disarranged — 
to such an extent is the bare mention of the word 
rat repugnant to our senses and stomachs. 

In the course of an experiment, the writer has cooked 
and boiled rats, and has found that their meat is of a 



41 

very tender quality, and of a white, inviting appear- 
ance, withal, althougli he never went the length of 
partaking of it. Our objection to the rat's serving as 
food is too deeply rooted and profound to be re- 
moved, although there are a great many animals whose 
flesh forms our staple food that have habits much 
dirtier, and who do not nearly live upon as cleanly 
a diet (and this is a broad statement) as our despised 
house rat. From this eulogium v/e gentlj but firmly 
exclude the rat gentry of the sewers. We must give 
the Chinese credit for having overcome the effete 
European prejudice against tlie rat as food. Seem- 
ingly, it is the most highly prized dish that the sons 
of leprosy have in their bill of fare. The crews of 
the American and English vessels lying in Canton 
harbor used to amuse themselves greatly in catching 
a rat, and then holding the kicking animal by the 
tail so that the Celestials in the junks alongside could 
get a good view of it. The Mongolians would then 
get very much excited, utter exclamations of a gob- 
bling, clucking sound, and as soon as the splut- 
tering, frightened rat was flung from the ship an 
uproarious scramble follov/ed, that made them look 
like so many monkeys quarreling over a cocoanut. 

A writer tell us, in a well- written magazine article, 
that he has lived fifteen years in China, and has had 
"experience at public banquets, social dinners, and 
ordinary meals, in company with all classes of people, 
but was exceedingly surprised at never having seen 
cat, dog, or rat served up in any form whatsoever." 
We are sorry the gentleman neglects to state whether 
he^d Tcnow the difference. The odds are twenty to 
one that he wouldn't ; because, as he knows himseK, 



42 

tlie Chinese are excellent cooks, and can prepare a 
good meal from what in other countries would be 
thought ofPal. He makes the admission, however, 
that " there are some peculiar people in China, 
as well as elsewhere — credulous and superstitious — 
some of whom believe that the flesh of dogs, cats, 
and rats, possesses medicinal properties. For instance, 
some silly women believe that the flesh of rats restores 
tlie hair ; some believe that dog meat and cat meat 
renews the blood, and quacks often prescribe it. 
What the Chinese really do eat does not vary much 
from that found on American tables ; but there are 
certain dishes not on our programmes that are con- 
sidered delicacies by everybody — such as edible bird's- 
nests and sharks' fins." To this we can add con- 
scientiously, and upon weighty private authority — 
fried split rat, stewed dog, and curried cat w^ith rice. 
In this place it would be appropriate of us to say 
something of the peculiarities of Chinese food — of 
the way the dogs and cats are carefully bred for the 
palates of the Chinese epicures ; how these former 
animals are invitingly exposed for sale in the market- 
places; and we would willingly describe the methods 
of the dog and cat breeders, and the manner of curing 
and cooking the rats — but want of space forbids. Wo 
will merely state that there are many cases in which 
rats were eaten much nearer home than China ; but, 
as the persons undertaking the experiment were slowly 
starving to death, and would have quickly eaten each 
other rather than accept the jolly alternative of dying 
by hunger, these instances are not of a remarkable 
nature, and are consequently unworthy of note in the 
present annals. 



43 



XII. ^RAT NESTS. 



Bats are impartial in tlieir building sites — they have 
contentedly bnilt their nests in the wretched and 
tiltliy peasant's hovel and in the most palatial and 
luxurious residences of kings, and a human habitation 
must indeed be in the extreme of sqnalor, dirt and 
decay where they are not found sprawling. Shake- 
speare pithily expresses this in the " Tempest :" 

! ** In few tliey hurried us aboard a bark, 

[ Bore lis some leagues to sea, where they prepar'd 

f A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd, 

Nor tackle, sail nor mast — the very rats 

Instiuctively had quit it." 

The rat living in a house prefers warm, soft 
quarters, and invariably gets within comfortable dis- 
tances of stoves, ranges, heaters, steam-pipes, etc. 
This is a very dangerous habit, because his nest is 
always constructed of inflammable materials. At 
times he also lugs matches into it, and then if the 
steam-pipes should become overheated, the matches 
blaze up and spread the flames. Yf e have read in the 
newspapers of a great many fires afterwards found to 
have been caused in this way. The rat's nest is made 
of black and colored silk, of linen, woolen and cotton 
materials, bits of canvas, dirty rags, fur, silk stock- 
ings, and antique lace of much value jumbled together 
Vvdtli string and crumpled paper. In one instance we 
knew of a rat to make .use of a building material more 
out of the ordinary run than these, as it consisted 
simply of fifteen hundred dollars in greenbacks that 
had been put under the carpet of a room for safe 
keeping, and which was afterwards found in mutilated 
fragments, thatched together, forming this queer old 



u 

mercenarj rat's abode. The rat uses his nest too as a 
storehouse, and here he lays by quantities of edibles 
for a rainy day. The writer came across a nest, once 
upon a time, the sole building materials of which were 
those undergarments, both masculine and feminine, 
fashioned so slenderly, but which we dare not mention. 
This nest contained a peck or eo of beans, though in 
the house where it was built beans had not been 
stored nor used, the writer found out, for at least 
three months. Out of doors or in fields the rats' 
nests are built of hay, leaves, shavings, and wool. 
The rat is, besides his other praiseworthy qualities, an 
inveterate old thief, and in decorating his dwelling 
picturesquely he becomes quite lavish, as gold rings, 
diamonds, jewels of every value, and gold and silver 
watches, that had been missed, were found in rat 
nests. Here they were generally discovered set off 
with much taste by a piece of salt bag. In one rat's 
nest I found a set of false teeth in perfect condition. 
The rat could not have wanted to use them himself, 
because they were several sizes too big for him. He 
probably wanted them for a tool-box or jewel-case or 
some other equally useful object. The writer remem- 
bers reading in some odd book of a good-natured per- 
son v/ho had discovered a family of young rats in a 
piano that stood in a room for som.e time unfrequented. 
They had made themselves so much at home^ in the 
interior of the instrument that the owner was un- 
willing to disturb them by playing upon it. The 
female rat probably wanted to get her young, to some 
safe place away from her liege lord, and had succeeded 
in gnawing up through the leg of the piano. She 
had brought with her, in which to build a nest, a dirty 






45 



striped stocking big enough to have belonged to some 
distinguished Dime Museum fat ladj. 



XIII. ^THE EAt's musical TALEiq'TS AND EYESIGHT. 

I Rats love sweet, soft, melodious tones, and a great 
many experiments have been made in taming rats 
thereby, but only with indifferent success upon the 
sharp-witted rodents, in spite of all the pretty stories 
to the contrary in the reading-books. So high is the 
rat's musical understanding rated, that there is a prov- 
erb among the people that rats immediately disap- 
pear from the house as soon as a young lady begins 
taking lessons on the piano. A mouth-harmonica 
seems to be the rat's favorite musical instrument, and 
its gentle strains exert the most power over him, far 
more than the tones of any other instrument. If the 
music be soft, mild, and pathetic, the rat will listen 
and come very near, for he is a very susceptible sort 
of beast, and, if closely observed, tears of sorrow, or 
of sad and tender reminiscence, will be seen coursing 
slowly down his cheeks. But if, on the contrary, the 
music be harsh, shrill, and discordant, such as would 
most likely be ground out by beginners, or if it proceed 
■ from a brass instrument, or drum, or if it be occasioned 
!by a shotgun report, or explosion, it may drive the im- 
I pressionable animals from places where they had been 
used to frequent. If, however, one is unsuccessful in 
trying to scare off the rats by noise at the first inning, 
a repetition will be of no avail. 

The rat will take up his nest in all and any out-of- 
: the way places, as he shuns the light and lives wholly 



46 

in the dark and gloom. Tliis is the cause of his poor 
sight ; he can hardly see at all in the daytime, and in 
the night a little better. If you should meet with a 
rat by day, looking square in your face, depend upon 
it he isn't able to see you at all, in spite of the pretty 
gleam in his black eyes. His minutely acute ears, 
however, do him good service instead of eyes, so that 
he has very little occasion to miss the latter at all. 

The rat is generally very timid, and extremely nerv- 
ous, the slightest disturbance repelling him and 
making him shrink into obscurity and shadow. Yet 
it is his great peculiarity that he can adapt himself to 
any extremity of climate or description of place ; he 
is found making himself at home in hotels, factories, 
public gardens, and other haunts of loud and constant 
noise, bustle, and confusion. 



XIV. — RATS AS MORALISTS. 

The Lord in making the rats is imputed to have 
done so to have them serve as scavengers for his 
wandering, wasteful tribes of children. But in our 
own day, as the majority of us do not wander, nor 
have wandered continually for the last two or three 
thousand years or so, and have slapped up many sup- 
posedly permanent villages like London, New York, 
or Paris, the restless, ambitious rat took into his head 
not to limit himself to such dirty kind of work exclu- 
sively. He then formed the resolution, and further 
carried out the purposes of his creator by taking 
upon himself the philosophic office of keeping man's 
pride in check. This he did by literally chipping a 



47 ■ 

large proportion of the gilt off man^s earthy grandeur, 
and by destroying his works and belongings at every 
possible opportunity, with right hearty good-will and 
much perseverance. " Therefore," says a writer, 
'' whatever man does, rat always takes a share in the 
proceedings. Whether it be building a ship, erecting 
a church, digging a grave, plowing a field, storing a 
pantry, taking a journey, or planting a distant colony, 
rat is sure t<j have something to do in the matter; 
man and his gear can no more get transplanted from 
place to place without him, than without the ghost in 
the wagon that ' flitted too '." 



XV. RATS IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS, AND THE MODERN 

RAT SUPERSTrriONS. 

In the merry days of old, rats were regarded as un- 
disputed signs of witchcraft, and even scholars ack- 
nowledged this — at least they were compelled to, by 
the help of a blazing pile of faggots, or similar mild 
means known only to the good old times. What 
caused this belief among the people was, that an 
animal appearing to them so small should be the cause 
of such intense and continual annoyance to them. 
There was no barrier through which the rat could 
not effect its way to get at a certain object, thanks to 
its wonderful powers of gnawing. It was so om- 
nivorous, ferocious, and destructive, that the people 
endowed the rat with superhuman qualities, and re- 
garded it as a true child of the Devil, put upon this 
earth to be always pestering them. In regard to the 
rat's superhuman qualities, it appears to have cer- 



48 

tainlj displayed more reason and acuteness, fighting 
in the daily battle of life, than any one of these thick- 
skulled humans could lay claim to. It was looked on 
with a great and most unreasonable aversion and 
loathing, born of superstition and fear, and which we 
find vehemently expressed in all the ancient books on 
the subject. This feeling, we cannot help believing, 
is not dead yet, according to the astounding anecdotes 
brought forth and widely copied in a great many of 
our American newsj^apers. The facts and data given 
in these learned articles about the rat's size, weight, 
and habits, in general, would make his hair stand on 
end with horror if he were to read them. As a matter 
of fact, the ordinary brown rat, which ^e find every- 
where near man, is a pretty black-eyed, softly robed, 
and delicately constructed little animal ; and although 
his fur may be plainly colored, like the plumage of the 
sparrow amongst birds, yet it is of the finest texture, 
and, when possible, is always kept scrupulously clean. 
In solitary captivity he is continually sitting on his 
haunches, cleaniag his fur like a cat ; and the writer 
has found, by actual experiment, the weight of twelve 
full-grown, well-fed T^ew York city rats to amount to 
exactly twelve and a half pounds. 

Formerly, in European countries, there was a gen- 
eral belief in the existence of strange and mysterious 
relations between this great slimy monster and the 
high-priests of vtdtchcraft and sorcery. It was thought 
that this was the animal best adapted to carry out 
the diabolical plots of his Satanic majesty. In one 
part of Norway, the peasants used devoutly to hold 
a fast day once a year, trusting thereby to get rid of 
the pests of rats and mice. They had a Latin ex- 



49 

orcism wtiicli they used on these occasions, beginning 
with the words, "Exerciso nos pestiferos, ve-rmeG 
mures," etc. Anything a rat left its trace upon was 
an omen of ill to the owner ; and when by any chance 
a rat was ever seen on a cow's back the poor animal 
was doomed to pine slowly to death in consequence. 
In Ireland it was believed that premises could be rid 
of rats by reciting a rhyme over their holes, which was 
commonly called " rhyming rats to death." 



XVI. REVIEW OF THE EAT, AND CONCLrSION. 

But since these times the people have succeeded in 
getting rid of a great quantity of superstition attached 
to the subject. It has also been learned gradually 
that the actions of the rat are prompted much more by 
natural than by diabolical instinct. Hov/ever timorous 
and innocent looking we have found the rat to be 
upon impartial observation, yet his is a case of wolf in 
sheep's clothing, for he is the one of the whole brute 
creation that does the most undermining damage in 
every way to the homes, workshops, counting-rooms, 
store-houses and cultivated fields and acres of man. 
The rat is also at times his very ferocious personal 
enemy. The rat's code of morals will be found rather 
deficient, as we have tried to explain in the preceding 
rambling remarks. In fact, there are condensed in this 
small animal all the vices of the animal world. "We 
have shown him in the pleasant light of a cannibal 
briefly making an end of all family ties by transfer- 
ring his relatives down his stomach. We have traced 



50 

a faint outline of his great food greediness and his in- 
temperance in strong drink, which is pretty near np to 
the human standard. We have pictured his strong 
liking for the hot blood of man and his utterly lack- 
ing an organ of veneration, digging up man's bones 
from their final resting-place to have them serve as 
food. 

The strongest weapon the rats have against man, 
ranking even above their wonderfully constructed 
teeth, are their prodigious multiplying pov/ers, "^ and," 
says Richardson, " if the rats were suffered to increase 
in numbers, unchecked, the time would not be far dis- 
tant when the entire globe would but suffice to furnish 
food for their rapacious appetites to the exclusion of 
the human race. " The only way man can hold his 
own against their mighty ravages and prevent his 
whole social organization from being undermined by 
them, is to wage a steady and unrelenting war, by the 
help of his own arts and the animals specially assigned 
by nature to do service for him as police, against the 
most bloodthirsty, cruel, and acute of enemies. 



RAT EXTERMINATION. 



There are four distinct metliods of rat extermina- 
tion, viz.: 1. Traps. 2. Poisons. 3. Cats, Dogs, and 
Ferrets. 4. Human Rat-catchers. We will first give 
some practical hints on 

I. TRAPS. 

The rat is by no means one of the least intelligent 
of quadrupeds, and there is one thing we feel solid 
about — when he knows you really want to trap him 
he'll do his level best to avoid your kind intentions. 
There are snoals of ingenious rat-traps with plenty 
of mechanism, in them which are certainly good as 
long as you don't plainly advertise them to the rats, 
which is about equal to saying '' Look out, rats, this 
is a trap for you, with a bait !" After you have put 
out this charitable notice nary a rodent will you 
catcli. We will now show how most simple people, after 
catching a lone specimen, give themselves ''dead 
away," to speak classically, to all the I'ats there are in 
the neighborhood. Get a trap, no matter of what 
shape, material or brand — but by all means get one 
that doesn't let the rat out asiain after he has been 
once caught. Bait it with anything nice and tempt- 
irjg, and put it near the rat-hole, just where they come 
out, any time before you go to bed. In the morning 
you probably find you have caught a rat — maybe a 
big, grizzled old fellow with a scabby tail, or else a 
young one, half frightened to death — anyway it is a 



52 

rat, and a real live one at that, and yon can forthwith 
proceed to kill him. Now clean jonr trap and smoke 
it out. Bait it again with the same care and, hundred 
to one, yon find — no rat. The mystery of it is this: 
The first rat that came out of the hole on the first 
night saw you had put down something for him, so 
he sniffed the dainty bait and remarked under his 
breath that he was a devilish lucky dog and that he 
had struck a superior sort of a free lunch all to him- 
self. With that he entered — the trap snapped harshly 
and cruelly, and the nervous little animal became 
frightened and sought to escape from his seeming 
abode of luxury. He couldn' t get out, squealed long 
and plaintively, and worked hard against the sides of 
his prison. Bye and bye all the other rats came out to 
see the cause of all the racket. After investigating 
they find their young friend has been dolefully sold, i| 
and together make and keep a vow to steer clear of 
your traps ever afterwards. This is why you catch 
but one rat and no more ; for a much more stupid and 
less nervous animal than a rat is would keep away 
from a similar arrangement in the future. We shall 
now try the experiment over again, but in a different 
fashion. Suppose we select a big round trap with 
falling doors at the sides and a hole on top. First be 
sure that the doors lift up and fall down very easily. 
If the bottom of the trap is of wire place it on saw- 
dust, so that the rats are comfortable in it. Put the 
trap away from the hole, near the wall of the cellar, 
if in winter near the warmest place, always in a dark 
spot. As our friend likes comfort so much, put a bag 
over the trap, so that he can find the falling doors 
easily. Get some rags scented with about fifteen 



53 

drops of either oil of rhodium, oil of carraway, oil of 
aniseed, or a mixture of these oils. First tie a strino- 
around them and swab them around the rat-holes, 
then drag them on the ground near the wall, to the 
place where the rat-trap is and rub the rags well over 
it, then put them in. Have some nice tempting bait 
in the trap, either carrots, meat, broiled bacon, or 
cheese — anything fresh will do— but be careful to put 
in enough of it. If the trap is placed as we have 
above directed the rat will get in and not try to 
escape. Make the trajp as much unlike a trap and 
as much like a natural hiding-jplace as possiMe, If 
this is done, it is highly probable you will have your 
cage chock-full of rats the next morning. It is very 
seldom this fails, but if it should not succeed the first 
night proceed as follows : Put the trap exactly as I 
have told you, with the exception to tie up the sliding 
doors. Let it stand there until the rats have eaten 
it out several times, replacing the bait. After the 
rats get used to frequent the place and think tliey 
have a " soft snap " on you, let down your falling 
doors again and you have them all ! 

After alibis said and done, the most practical of aU 
rat-traps is my little "Special Steel Trap," which 
catches one rat at a time, but its cost is so reason- 
able that you can have a dozen of them for the price 
of one of the big wire ones. It is an utter impos- 
sibility for the rats to avoid being caught if the traps 
are properly placed, and it can, with ease, be so nicely 
adjusted that the gentlest touch of a rat's paw will in- 
sure his immediate capture. And when Mister Eat 
has put down that little paw of his he is as securely 
held as if he were naMed to the floor. I have over 



54 

ten thousand of these traps in use in my professional 
rat-exterminating operations and sell barrels of them. 
The larger the space to be covered the more traps 
are required, and, where it is possible, remove jour 
rat as soon as caught. Place the traps in the natural 
run of the rats ; around swill-barrels, along the walls, 
etc. Its chief practical beauty is its innocent appear- 
ance, as there is nothing about its placid surface which 
tells the rats of its unerring aim. With every trap 
we furnish a chain-attachment and fastener ; the 
latter is for the purpose of securing it to the flooring 
and prevents the rats from dragging the trap. As 
this Special Steel Trap is a boon to large institutions, 
ships, shops, factories, stores, hotels, office-buildings, 
iiat-houses, warehouses, private dwellings, slaughter- 
houses, etc., etc., I quote the following prices on it, 
which are net : 

Per dozen .. ..$3.00 

Per hundred 20.00 

II. — POISONS. 

The common rat poisons are Arsenic, Strychnine and 
Paris-green. These are put up by enterprising people 
under a nmltitude of suggestive names, without 
specifying the kind of poisons used, however, or even 
a warning of their being poisonous, as the law 
implicitly directs. There is, indeed, a great deal of 
criminal negligence in the way these poisons are put 
upon the market, as in some the jproportion of poison 
is so great that it would kill an elephant — whereas it 
should be exactly graded to the rat's capacity. The 
jn-oportion of arsenic in one very-much-advertised rat- 
poison now in use, as analyzed by Dr. Otto Grotlie, 



55 

a Brooklyn cliemist, consists of 98.19 per cent, pure 
arsenic and 1.81 per cent, admixtures (coal, etc.). 
Wonld-be saicides and murderers have made use of 
these poisons extensively. Poisons in powdery form — ^ 
such as arsenic and strychnine — are liable, very easily, 
indeed, to get mixed up with food, and have in that 
way been a powerful deatii-dealing agency. Their 
peculiar effect on the rats is to allow them to get 
over-doses, causing violent vomiting, followed by 
complete failure to kill or drive out. The Phosphoric 
Paste, the ^' Sure Pop " brand of which is very care- 
fully manufactured by the present writer, is free 
from all of these objections, as it is in salve form 
and very hard to be accidentally mixed up with 
edibles of any kind. It is impossible for the rats to 
receive overdoses of it ; and the phosphorus has the 
effect of burning and irritating them internally and 
forcing them to run for fresh air. Arsenic and 
strychnine rat-poisons are usually prepared in such 
heavy quantities that the rats prematurely die in the 
holes. On the other hand, the amount of actual 
poisonous matter in this "Sure Pop" Phosphoric Paste 
has been exactly proportioned to the rat's system, 
making the amount of poison very slight. There is 
no secret at all in the compounding of this prepa- 
ration, but it requires much experience and study of 
the rat's nature, preferences and habits to make it so 
that it will work v/ith proper effect. The utmost 
daintiness is also required in the handling of all its 
ingredients. We have practically shown on page 40 
how the smell of phosphorus is the most powerful of 
attractions known to the rat, and how it will operate 
when everything else fails. 



56 



III. — DOGS, CATS AND FEI2EETS. 

The claims of cats as one of the rat remedies we 
shall have to dismiss in very short order, as the ex- 
ceptional cases in which they do good work are 
altogether too few and far between. The only 
domestic animal which really possesses value in 
hunting rats is the ferret, as, by reason of its india- 
rubber joints, it can pursue its prey home. Any 
terrier— no matter what variety — shaving a fair amount 
of intelligence can be broken in with ferrets, so that 
your ferret can do the hunting out and the dog — at 
the proper moment — can do the killing. The fox- 
terrier is by far the best ratting-terrier. He is quick, 
understands and remembers what is taught him, is 
full of ambition, and readily learns to regard the 
ferrets as his partners in the rat-hunt. 

IV. — HUMAlSr EAT-C ATCHEItS. 

The directions given with each of the remedies ad- 
vocated by me are so plain that anyone can success- 
fully put them into use. Where the rats have got 
altogether too thick, or where they hold possession 
of a place in such a way that there appears no clue to 
dislodging them, it is quite advisable to call in an 
expert. To this effect I have perfected a regular 
system of rat-exterminating in which the remedies I 
mention in this book are systematically applied — 
under my own superintendence — by a corps of ex- 
perts. Through this improved system I am enabled 
to take contracts t@ exterminate rats (and also other 
vermin) from any kind of building in any city or 
town in the United States, providing the job is large 
enough. Correspondence on the subject given 
prompt attention. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE FERRET. 

WITH HINTS TO DARWIN. 



We have stated, in the first chapter of this book, that 
the verb '' ferret " is derived from the animal of the 
same name, but many savants, and even "plain peo- 
ple," as Lincoln said, have cudgeled their brains try^ 
ing to trace from whence the animal has derived its 
name. After long and tedious delving into histories 
and musty tomes having even the slightest bearing on 
the subject, we are able herewith to enlighten these 
gentlemen. For this illumination they have long 
been waiting, we have no doubt, with the utmost 
anxiety and impatience. This requires us to go at length 
into the matter, and entails upon us the writing of the 
ferret's development from prehistoric times until 
merged into the animal of to-day, with its present 
shape, instincts, and habits. In the course of the 
essay we also prove conclusively that the animal 
originally comes from America. Many scientists will 
no doubt deem it peculiar to find us using many 
modern and untechnical terms in the following 
history, but let them rest assured that if we were to 
make use of our extensive scientific knowledge of the 
subject it would compel them to hunt up all the 
lexicons that had ever been compiled ! 



5B 

in the very good and very old days before our pres- 
ent reckoning, when mankind sported tails and was 
protected against the wind and weather by a long, 
hairy covering, and when both animals and man had a 
language of their own — in those times it was that two 
fair- sized buck Martens, one of the Beech and the 
other of the Stone species, stood on the southern point 
of what is now called Cape Farewell, in Greenland, 
longitude 30° 30' east, latitude 60° 2' north. They 
trembled violently from excitement, because they 
had just finished a friendly set-to of 64 rounds, lasting 
3 hours 10 minutes. New York time, and which both 
had so far survived. The referee, an old good-natured 
' fox, saw with his keen off-eye that there w^as no more 
fight in either of them, and pronounced the battle a 
draw, telling them to try it again on some future day, 
whereupon he speedily took his departure, as he was 
very busy just at that time umpiring base-ball games. 
The contestants then shook forepaws, a custom which 
has survived the centuries, and after a little cold water 
and rest had restored them they mended their broken 
friendship and made solemn pledges not to try harm- 
ing each other any more. They further made a bar- 
gain to set up a business firm, which meant in those 
days, as it does now, division of spoils. In the 
language of that time the Beech Marten was called 
Yer, and his partner, the Stone Marten, Hect^ there- 
fore the firm was called '^ The Yer and Kect Bill-of- 
Fare Improving Co." This title explains part of their 
object in making the trip described in the following 
pages. The other agreements were to do it in perfect 
harmony, and at the end of their pilgrimage to stick 
forever by that particular diet that had suited them 



59 




60 

best. The J were both very glad of their compact, be 
cause each one had formed a high opinion of the 
other's powers evidenced in the pummeling of one 
another's ribs. Talking things over leisurely, they 
found themselves getting hungry, and as their stomach 
was and is yet the Mainspring of their actions, they 
resolved to start immediately on the expedition. 
After they had traveled 48 hours due south-east (a 
direction which they instinctively followed all through 
their wanderings) tliey had the good luck to stumble 
upon a small but very fat pig, snoring comfortably on 
the banks of a river, known then as the Atlantic river, 
but since developed into the ocean of the same name, 
a further account of which is given further on. Yer 
and Rect found the stream about the size of our pres- 
ent Hudson as it flows by "Weehawken. The partners 
accordingly killed the pig without much bother, ate it, 
and took a short nap (for those times) of three days, 
and after waking they stretched themselves, hopped 
around, and took a drink from the river, but no sooner 
had they swallowed a little of the water than they 
commenced spitting, spluttering, and twisting their 
faces into all shapes, as the water was very salt and 
brackish. Eating the very fat pig and drinking the 
salt water had not agreed with Yer and Rect, and 
they put down the following on the tablets of their 
minds for future reference : " Fat pig bad feed — salt 
water ditto." Hence alltheir descendants, right up to 
this day, never indulge in pork or use salt at all. 

Yer, who wore spectacles, then took the reckoning, 
and found they had just traveled 1910 prehistoric 
miles, quite a distance for those days. The firm re- 
solved lazily to start again, and after yawning a good 



61 

deal, and lying in the sun a little while longer, they 
still felt unpleasant fat-pig and salt-water sensations. 
They paddled across the Atlantic river, and by the 
time they had arrived on tlie oilier side they had no 
objection to lunching again, and as fortune seemed to 
favor them, they spied in the distance a very big wood- 
chuck. After an exciting chase, Yer and Eect 
captured him, and at iirst devoured him with viin. 
The poor Martens, however, w^ere doomed to disap- 
pointment, for when they had bolted their prize and 
had taken their usual nap of three days, they woke up 
with great pains in their much-abused interior depart- 
ments. They thought the woodchuck business over 
carefully and made this inward memorandum : " Wood- 
chuck may be very good, but we prefer lead-pipe." 

Four days after the feast of the woodchuck, wander- 
ing on rather discontentedly, they were suddenly de- 
lighted by a wonderful change in the climate, that had 
previously been harsh and cold, but was now mild and 
radiant. Birds were singing from beautiful trees, 
J^anny and Billy goats, and sheep were gamboling 
about cheerfully. Lions and wolves were doing a 
thriving business, and, just like the bulls and bears of 
to-day, were all living on the poor lambs. The Mar- 
tens wandered about a mile through tliis happy land, 
and in course of time, bethinking themselves of tlieir 
sacred mission, they fell to work on a Billy goat, v»']iO 
was slain, after a hard fight, as an offering to tlieir 
great god, The Stomach. It is evidenced by our 
records that this goat must have been a huge animal, 
for Yer and Rect lived three days on his carcass, 
although at the end of this time they felt rather 
sick. The entry in their inward journal was as fol- 



lows : " Disgusted with Billy goat ; hopes of finding 
our steady feed very gloomy." E-ect began to feel 
discouraged, but Yer cheered him up, saying unto 
him : " Rec', I have a feeling within my bones which 
tells me our promised land of Good Feed draws near. 
Brace up thy suspenders, and let us be of good mien 
and travail onward, for there is no philosopher on 
earth of a cheerful temper with his belly unhinged." 
Yerily, after a two days' journey, they observed, to 
their joy, right on their road, a great mountain over- 
grown with timber and underbrush. Upon reaching 
it, they found it full of game of all kinds, some of 
which they began to attack immediately. Among 
others they caught a little, delicate gray rabbit, and 
after critically tasting its flesh, were delighted with its 
flavor. They thought now they had found a solid 
bill-of-fare material, and made arrangements for stay- 
ing in the place by digging themselves comfortable 
beds under the roots of a big tree. There was such 
an abundance of these delicious rabbits that Yer and 
Rect concluded they had enough of a wandering life, 
and that the mission of the ''Bill -of -Fare Improving 
Co." was fulfilled. * They called the land, on account 
of tlie great number of these little animals, Engelland, 
meaning the land of the Engels, or angels, at present 
England. Having kept bachelor's hall for awhile 
under the big tree, they formed the acquaintance of 
some of their rich neighbors, who were very kind to 
them, and whom the Martens found to be relatives of 
theirs. To Yer and Rect's former pastimes of hunt- 
ing, eating, drinking (cold water), and sleeping, they 
now added courting. Yer acquainted himself with a 
pretty young Miss Weasel, a blonde, and paid her 



63 

attention, and Kect took fancy to a handsome and 
stately Miss Mink, a brunette. In two hours after 
their first courtship — the thing was done quicker in 
those days — Yer and Rect were married men. They 
begot children, grandchildren, and great-grand- 
children, who in their turn intermarried into the 
families of the Sables, the Fitches, and the Ermines, but 
all the descendants of Yer and Eect went under the 
name of Yer-Rects, afterwards verrects, until it has 
been gradually mellowed into our present ferrets. 
The ferrets now lived in the woods of old Engelland, 
hunting and eating rabbits and enjoying themselves 
with all their families on this only ingredient of their 
bill-of-fare, which Yer and Rect thought of making 
the permanent ferret food by law. Of course the 
ferrets grew into the most expert of rabbit-hunters, 
and they have retained this ability to the present day. 
i^ever after they had been in Engelland did Yer or 
Rect or their descendants subsist on pigs, wood- 
chucks, or billy-goats. One morning a great accident 
happened, which brought them a different kind of 
food, consisting of a large army of black rats. The 
way it happened w^as this : The earth on which we 
now live, and which swings around at a pretty good 
gait on its own axle, broke it right near the north 
pole and all the waters spilled out there. They over- 
flowed the Atlantic river 1500 miles on each side, and 
thus formed our present Atlantic Ocean. The high 
mountain of England was just saved from the water, 
making it an island, and just then 750,000 live rats 
swam on shore to save themselves from drowning. 

The ferrets killed a few of these rats to experiment 
upon, and were more than delighted with the tender 



64 

meat, Ver and Rect making the ferret's bill-of-fare 
for all ages chiefly consist of rabbits and rats. Some- 
times the ferrets went rabbit and sometimes rat-hunt- 
ing, and were as expert in the one as in the other, and 
so it is that the ferret of to-day occupies itself, by the 
mandates of its forefathers, Yer and liect, in the 
vigorous hunting throughout all lands of the rat and 
the rabbit. From whence the rats came before they 
arrived in England will be found in the next chapter. 



THE CONTINUATION OF THE FOKMEE CHAPTEE. 

Our rats are from China, The proof of this will be 
found in more particularly observiug the rat's looks, 
vices and nature, the manner in which he carries his 
(pig) tail, and further, the great love of the Chinaman 
for him. We contend also that the Chinaman and the 
rat are relatives, for it can be said of both, as it has 
been said of one, 

" That for ways that are dark, 
And for tricks that are vain, 
The heathen Chinee is peculiar." 

So we say positively that the rat is Chinese, and 
there is no recoid that can prove the contrary. The 
rats were kept locked np in that great empire of solid 
fences before they showed themselves to the other 
countries of the earth. Forty years before the great 
Yer and Eect battle, 750,000 big rats, with their tails 
out straight, like real Chinese pig-tails, concluded to 
make an exodus out of the heavenly territory, under 
the leadership of 75 big chiefs. They didn't want to 



65 

leave particularly, but tliey weie afraid of being 
starved out altogether, or else murdered for food bj 
the Chinese army. After the rats had put themselves 
in battle array, and were duly formed in procession, 
the 75 big chiefs, who were distinguished from the 
others by their big red noses and muscular forms, held 
a council. At the end of a three days' session, during 
which a great many speeches had been made and a 
good deal of lighting had been going on, a very old 
political rat-boss arose and made a proposition. His 
speech was about as follows : " Honored Rats, and 
fellow-citizens : I have been a rat for a good many 
years, and don't want to change my business. I must 
say I like being a rat. But if we are hacked up in 
soup, or starved out completely, 1 have my doubts of 
our staying powers. Countrymen and lovers, this is 
what we are threatened with, and we must move. 
Where to ? is the question that arises, and I have 
thought it over. The climate is hot to suffocation and 
very unhealthy here ; let us trust to luck and go west, 
as a friend of mine said on a similar occasion. ' Go 
West, young man, go West,' I say unto you now, 
and I advise you to do so as speedily as possible." 
This speech was received with " tremendous applause" 
for the old rat waxed very eloquent, and the " go west" 
resolution was passed unanimously. An amendment 
was put in, changing the course to north-west, for the 
meeting was held during such hot weather, that some 
of the radicals wanted to start out immediately and settle 
on the North Pole. They were promptly overruled, 
of course, and the 750,000 rats, including males and 
females, wandered on slowly in their chosen direction, 
increasing on the road to a wonderful extent. The 



66 

council concluded to hold a thorough count or census 
of rats, and each male rat, it was provided, should not 
be bashful about coming forward and giving the true 
number of his whole family — no doctoring of the re- 
turns allov/ed. After the count was completed, all the 
rats over and above the original amount, 750,000, 
agreed to stay in the country they had arrived at. 
Tlie originals kept on moving towards the north- 
west, but the others filled up every section of the 
earth they passed through. The rats made friends 
with neither man nor animal on their journey. First 
they made a stop in a state where all the owls — although 
they were countrymen of the rats, hashing emigrated 
from China — fell upon them, and there was a pitched 
battle, the rats afterwards hiding themselves in their 
holes under ground after losing a great inany in dead 
and wounded. One day they agreed to make an ex- 
cursion out of the line of their route and so take in 
Egypt. In a few weeks they here ate up all the corn 
from the fields, stealing and hiding away anything 
edible, and quite creating a panic,, but always fighting 
shy of the daylight. We read in the histories of a 
great locust plague in Egypt, about this tim.e, but on 
this point we have a revelation to m.ake. The locust 
was just as innocent of this crime as it is of building the 
Brooklyn Bridge — it was the rats that did it. When 
the rats arrived in Greece they scored a signal victory, 
because it was there that they extirminated a whole 
nation — the mice — and the f orm.er have strongly held 
this country ever since. We are authentically informed, 
by reference to our own private rat historian's notes of 
this trip, that the first place the rats met their great 
enomj, the Dog, was in Ancient Rome, where the 



67 

dogs were pat on them by man with much success, and 
here the ratseould get no firm foothold. This caused 
them a roundabout journey north, and when they 
thought they had pretty well established themselves 
in ancient Gaul, now France, they were raided by a 
strange tigerish kind of animal which proved afterwards 
a lasting antagonist of theirs — the Cat. The poor 
rodents found here tlie other enemies they had en- 
countered on the road, the owl and the dog, who were 
always urged on fiercely by man. While the rats were 
struggling along in France, the land Avas convulsed by 
an earthquake, causing the Atlantic river's banks to be 
overflowed. This submerged the land on which the 
rats were, and as they all could swim they headed 
their course for England, the nearest dry land. It 
was here the ferrets joined man, dogs, cats and owls, 
but the more the rats were hunted, the more acute 
and crafty they got to be, until they found out innu- 
merable hiding-places and ways of preservation, so we 
have them still wilh us to-day. We thus close our 
story of research, through which we have shown 
America as the birthplace of the ferret, China of the 
rat, and England as the first country employing ferrets 
for rat-hunting« 







SURE POP BREED. 



RAISED AND TRAINED 



BY THE 



AUTHOR OF THIS BOO! 



EVERY FERRET SOLD IS lARBANTED 



'RiibidiiaD. 



DEPOT-92 FULTON STREET 



NEW YORK CITY. 



HOUSES CLEARED 






Vv^r 







33^- 



i'"'^ 



WITH KKRRKTS, 



CONTRACT. 



-»- 



EPOT-92 FULTON STREET, 



NEW YORK CITY. 



SURE POP 



OSPHORIC PASTE, 



FOR THE 



DESTRTJOTION OF- 



Rats, Mice, and Roaches, 



MANUFACTURED BY 



"SURE POP"ISAACSEN, 



PKEVCIPAL. DEPOT: 



92 FULTON STREET, 



NEW YORK CITY. 



SURE POP 




NSEGT* rOWDER 



FOR THE 



DESTRUCTION OK 



Roaches, Bed Bugs, Ants, Fleas, Flies, Mosquitoes 

Moths, Spiders, Scorpions, Centipedes, Plant 

and Animal Lice, Croton Bugs, etc., etc., etc. 



OWN IMPORTATION AND WARRANTED THE 
BEST IN THE WORLD. 



PEINCIPAL DEPOT: 

92 FULTON STREET 

NEW YORK CITY. 



SURE POP 

INSECT POWDER KILLERS, 



Tills valuaWe little instrument was patented hj me years ago. 
It is a handly little machine for dusting the Insect Powder 
around. It is made of vulcanized rubber, having a metallic top. 



PRINCIPAL DEPOT: 

92 FULTON STREET, 

NEW YORK CITY. 

SURK POP 

Patent Insect Powder Bellows. 

Patented April 29, 1884. 
Number of Patent, 297,693. 

THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS MACHINE OVER ALL OTHERS ARE: 

1. It is easily loaded. 

2. There is no w^aste of powder. 

3. The Powder can not get back into the Bellows. 

4. The top can not get worked off. 

5. The Bellows are made under my own supervision, and 

every one is guaranteed. 



f €:r':Mj 




ED 3ft ° 







o . *' o „ o ' JD 



<^. 






^^^ 




,^ ^^ : 







0^ ,*^'/-» o. 






C" *^ 




o 






0^ e'^i:^ 





• V 






<^ ^ o " o 




















> V 




-^^ oV^^^^MPfe,^". ""^. ^<< ' -^^MI/Z^J. ^^ <V 



'^0^ 




'bV^ 




w.^ ^^ 



5> » < •> 




> ^ 











'"-s^ 




C, vP 















^°-^t. 




4 O 











<■? ^. o vJSaf * a^ ^ • ©lis * <^ ^, 




H^^ 






"°. 








< V ^ ° " ° ^- 





* <P ♦So' 








-^0 



4 O 




^^.>^ 






>^^ % ^' 




^JST. AUGUSTINE ^^> -^ ^^ -7«^ii^^^ ^-0. 

^v -^^m FLA. A> „ u o 'Ov ^'^ . / - "^ 



^ 



^O^ 



